Would it be possible to turn being social into an obsession?

Post Reply New Topic

I wish I knew a tip or trick to make verbal language processing easier for you. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to feel left behind in a conversation.

About Go, why is it difficult to give someone an overview of the game? Is it the game itself? I've never played and only know of the game because the Go AI made the news.

Me too! I've only recently worked out that I am autistic, so at least now I know that it is because of some neurological miswiring in my brain that actually makes this stuff really hard for me. Before I thought that I was normal, and my problems were because I wasn't trying hard enough. So at least I now have a better starting point to start working it all out.



Go is quite a recent obsession of mine. I only got into it when the Go AI made the news, but I have now been completely sucked in.

Go is a very simple game, hidden in that simplicity are hundreds of layers of complexity. You essentially try to place your stones on the board so it surrounds as large an area as you can whilst stopping your opponent from doing the same. This turns into all out warfare (in a game playing kind of way.) Tactics have been developed over thousands of years as to what the best way to do this is.

I guess that is the overview, it is much easier for me to type it than it is to say it. If I tried to say that to someone it would not have been as succinct and clear as that. Maybe I should try to memorise that and practice reciting it. If I tried to go into any more detail than that I would just not be able to explain anything coherently. I could get a board out and explain by actually putting stones on the board. But to get to that level people would need to be genuinely interested in wanting to play. Very few people are. Normally I mention it to some one, they make a vague acknowledgement and then go back to talking about themselves.

I am hoping to go to a Go club soon where there will be people who will be all about talking about Go.

That's a great start and might make some people curious to know more. If they ask you another question, then yeah, that's an invitation to explain the game further. I don't think I'd be good at that sort of visually-oriented game, although I'm still curious about how people take turns and determine legal moves. But that's me. Some other people might stop at your overview or ask a different question.

Darn it, I've tried several times to reply and explain more about Go to you. But it is really hard. I just go blank and lose the words..

Wow! A quick Google and a few minutes of reading show why you have no words:
http://www.britgo.org/intro/intro2.html

The premise is so deceptively simple, and then you get to all the different formations, and the capturing begins.

It is a lot more complicated than that. The goal of the game isn't about capturing pieces, it is more about surrounding territory.

Capturing is just a small part of it. It is easy to become obsessed with taking out a group of your opponents stones and lose focus of the fact that while you are doing this your opponent has taken over the entire rest of the board. Quite often an expert player will intentionally sacrifice stones in order to gain more territory.

Even more confusingly sometimes a stone is placed at a certain point which means that the only way to kill that stone will result in certain death for your group of stones. But of course you have to kill that stone or else you will die anyway. So if your opponent plays that move that group is dead by default. There are hundreds of different scenarios known as "life and death problems" that you can play through to get experience in these situations.

There are also situations known as seki where if you play you will die and if your opponent plays they will die. You are stuck...

The top Go players start learning to play when they are 5 years old. There are dedicated Go schools that they attend where they practice Go for hours every day. It is a very complicated game.

But a lot of fun to learn..

I have had lots of problems knowing what to say, feeling scared in various social situations, and cutting myself off from people in general. Anxiety about how to communicate with people has been one of the most crippling things when I am with people. Getting it 'right' has severely hampered how I speak to people. I have realised that I know what to say when I am being honest. My honest self is more connected to what's happening around me than trying to be someone who I am not.
I'm not saying that social skills can not be learned to some extent, but they should not be used to hide ones own true feelings. I am a sensitive and perfectionist person, which is perhaps why I tried so hard to fix me, but I am not broken like I thought I was. I also didn't really realise that I treated myself like I am broken.